So I am wondering about a good way to get the RT and his crew onto a planet. Can Valkyre gunships fly in space. Also how many and what type of other landing craft would be on board a RT's ship?

Valkyries are VTOL aircraft. Think helicopter, not orbital shuttle. If you want to use something canonical, the Aquilla and (IIRC) Argus are both suitable interface shuttles, as are the generic guncutters and gigs. Other suitable "generic" small craft types include cutter, lighter, shuttle, dropship, lander, and (in emergencies) lifeboat.

As far as numbers go, that's pretty much up to the GM. I'd advise not being stupidly small-minded about things, though. Even a small raider hull is 1600 meters long and has a crew of 20000+ people. That implies both capacity and need for significant drop/lift capability, especially if you expect the RT to be hauling cargo. There really have to be multiple shuttles on any ship just to allow them to haul basic supplies like food, fuel, and ammo - and macrocannon shells aren't going to fit in a subcompact, you know?

Likewise, you could pull the internal ordnance load for a Marauder bomber (or one of its' variants), and refit it as a craft. They're void-capable, and bigger than a Valkyrie (although much of that is wingspan, or otherwise taken up with the stuff you need to fly). Call it a capacity of... oh, I don't know, 15? 20?

Another canonical choice would be the Eagle assault shuttles favoured by the Adeptus Arbites (and, in my campaign universe, the IN) when landing troops to a planet, which have been described as having a capacity of around 50 or so (minimum).

Aquila Landers, Arvus Lighters Lightning Strike Craft and Thunderbolt fighters are all Imperial small air and space craft there would also be some form of heavy lifter for hauling cargo around which is something you can just make up for your games

Valkyries, according to the Forge World Books, are atmospheric craft only, ie they can't fly in space.

Of course, the most recent sources (White Dwarf and, I believe, the new Imperial Guard Codex) say they can. A typical example of a GW background conflict. Galling.

I've wondered this myself.

On the one hand - Valkyries are not void capable

1) This would require special equipment and this is not evidently the case

2) if they are, why use small orbital shuttles at all

3) Orbital drops in canon are never shown in valkyries AFAIK

On the other hand

1) if they aren't void capable and given that the Imp Guard don't operate them, how do the Navy get them planetside? I can imagine huge ships the size of aircraft carriers with rows of aircraft but theres nothing in the canon.

Gribble_the_Munchkin said:

They bring them down in ships.

IIRC at least in Dark Apostle, Valkyres were deployed from massive bulk carriers at upper atmosphere, and I think I read somwhere about them being deployed from low orbiting/high atmosphere space ships... So not a shuttle, but capable of one way trip down.

Lightbringer said:

Fairly easily resolved by differences in model and the fact that being able to transition to and from low orbit is quite a bit different than being capable of interplanetary flight. Valkyries built on Mars are much nicer than those from low tech worlds. The Ravenor books also features a Valkyrie (or a Vulture) that is implied to have been dropped from orbit.

They also describe many starships as being able to enter upper atmospheres, so there's an interface for starships launching and landing atmospheric-only flyers.

Aye, usually the gunships either come down on space-capable carriers, and are deployed from the ground, or are deployed from low orbit/high atmo from a ship. You don't need nearly as much special gear to fly to high atmo than you do to leave the atmosphere, after all.

I would say that the Valkyrie would be incapable of flight outside of an atmosphere. Now the background does give some examples of ships that can fly in both space and atmosphere, most common in my mind being the Argus lighter and Aquilla lander. Both are relatively small craft and IIRC the Aquilla is the only one of the two that is armed. I have read in several novels descriptions of larger designs for massive army drops, but I don't think they have stats or names.

When it comes to big ships in 40k (for imperials) the term used is Leviathan – now Leviathans are freaking huge – even a small one can hold an entire Imperial Guard regiment
I cannot, off the top of my head, think of any sort of cargo hauler/ heavy lifter named and described in any 40k book

Kordos said:

There are two I can think of: the Tetrarch Heavy lander, described in Tactica Imperialis, and another (whose name escapes me) which featured in the Inferno comic.

Now I think about it, another one is depicted (but not named) on the cover of the new Imperial Guard Codex, which shows a pair of vast Aquila prowed landers with troops pouring out of them.

All three would seem to be used to carry regiment-sized forces. Presumably even larger heavy shuttles carry titans, Capitol Imperialii, Leviathans and the like...

Logically, one of these heavy landers would contain the atmospheric flyers (like Valkyries) and ready built landing strips (or at the least buldozers to rapidly assemble them.) In a planetary assault, a heavy lander would probably be escorted in by a bunch of Imperial fighters, dump its cargo of Valkyries, Vendettas and Vultures, and quickly build a runway/landing pads for the fighters, which would then refuel, rearm and relaunch to escort the heavy lander back to the edge of the atmosphere.

Now I understand this is HIGHLY unlikely, but you might be able to, at higher lvls, find a way to get a Thunderhawk. I would have to say you better have a pretty **** important Mechanicus buddy, cus Throne knows the Astartes aren't given theirs up. I guess you could say they have a stolen one too, but that can only end in disaster.

Kordos said:

I thought Dan Abnett mentioned some droppers that were used for company/platoon elements in the Gaunts Ghosts series. And there is also the one mentioned in 15 Hours (the authors name escapes me).

And after a quick glance over the starship section of the RT rule book I think you could adapt some of the Dropships from Battletech to use in a 40k setting with little problem. For example google the Leopard Dropship, IIRC 500tons energy weapons and it could easily be converted for use as a cargo vessel instead of a Mech carrier (or given the mass of the things carry one or two Warhound Titans).

Lightbringer said:

There are two mentioned in Inferno! 's The Conquest of Obzidion article: the Minotaur-class tug, which not only sees use as an orbital tractor, but can be used to "shuttle Ground Attack Vehicles to the surface"; and the 'Devourer' Imperial Guard dropships.

I believe 15 Hours was a Mitchel Scanlon book

In Imperial Armour it describes aircraft, like the Thunderbolt, as having rocket boosters for limited space operations. This is for transport and deployment not for combat. It decribes them being able to leave ships in low orbit and engage their engines in atmosphere. Also most Imperial aircraft are VTOL and will only initially need a a flat peice of ground to land (like the harrrier).

The size of landers and shuttlecraft would also depend on the carrying ship. The larger landers for bulk cargo and such would be carried on cargo ships, but not on cruisers. The larger personal landers would likely to be carried on troopships and so on.

All Imperial Navy ships are described in IA Vol 4 as having a variety of smaller craft aboard, from brigs, dories and pinnaces to couriers and lighters. The arvus coming in as a small utility lighter. I assume their would likely be bigger lighters available.

What is the prevelence of Thunderhalks being used by people other than Space Marines. Because they are a SM landing ship, so I would assume that most people do not have acsuess to them. However some =I= do use them. Could you make a good case for a normal RT to have a few, or would this be out of the normal budget.

Thunderhawks are incredibly advanced pieces of Imperial tech, so I'd say their use is rare outside the astartes and Inquisiton. A gun cutter is more the sort of thing you'd be after: have a look at this splendid example:-

http://www.scholaprogenium.com/strmhawk.html

Or these:-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/CELS83/Anargo%20Sector%20Project/Vehicles/Cutter-Cardinal.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/CELS83/Anargo%20Sector%20Project/Vehicles/Cutter-Crescent.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/CELS83/Anargo%20Sector%20Project/Vehicles/cutter.png

Which are very excellent indeed.

Thanks! These are very interesting.

Thanks for reminding me about the Anargo stuff, Lightbringer. I'd forotten just how much the Cardinal class cutter was rockin' the War Rocket Ajax vibe.